The Skif, Captain Manuel's ship.
The interrogation room hangs in gloom, like smoke from a fire that refuses to die.
Narrow. Airless. The metal walls scarred and rusted. The light from a single dangling lamp flickers erratically, slicing the darkness into flashes of faces and ragged shadows—shreds of hell.
Maria and Pietro stand before the prisoners.
Yulia and Alex are strapped to chairs, heads bowed.
But in their posture—there's no fear. No regret.
Only a strange, unnatural calm, the kind you'd see in androids who've already glimpsed the end—and somehow survived it.
Pietro steps forward.
His boots slam against the floor like the heartbeat of panic.
His voice cracks the silence like a shot inside a box.
"Talk. What did you do to General Jamal?"
Silence.
Only the hum of the lamp. The faint rasp of breath.
Then Yulia raises her eyes.
Serene. Terrifying in their peace.
"Nothing illegal," she says flatly, clearly—like reciting a verdict.
"I... simply placed the Kairus amulet around his neck."
Maria squints, narrowing in on her like a blade.
She tries to pierce her mask with her gaze.
There must be a lie beneath it. But... is that pain?
"You know he's dead?" Maria's voice is a dull thunder beyond the horizon.
Yulia nods. And for the first time—her voice cracks like glass.
"I'm sorry," she whispers. "He never became one of us.
And I... I had hoped."
What are you saying? You hoped? For what? For whose salvation?
We're losing friends, brothers—and you... you're playing with lives?
Pietro whirls on Alex.
His eyes blaze. Rage foams at his lips.
"Don't even think about telling me you just happened to be here!"
He raises his arm—
His fist slams into the wall beside Alex's face.
Dust trickles from the ceiling. The room shudders.
Alex... smirks.
"Who knew two amulets meant death?
Didn't exactly come with a manual..."
Pietro is ready to strike.
The world turns red behind his eyes.
But inside...
something clicks.
Not rage. Not fear.
A law.
Evil must be punished.
But punish the innocent—and the evil becomes your own.
So Hanaris once said.
Pietro freezes.
Maria speaks instead.
Her voice tolls like a bell across an empty field:
"You erased another's will.
You took a life—without consent, without awareness.
You must be judged."
Pietro straightens. Slowly.
But inside him simmers a volcano still ready to erupt.
"We could..."
"Put the amulets on you. Let your deaths be the answer."
"Or..."
"Burn you with plasma. Quick. Clean. No pain."
Silence.
Heavy as concrete.
A verdict.
And then—the world shatters.
The Realm of the Judge
They stand on gray sand.
Around them—cosmic emptiness. Roaring wind. Rain. Lightning. The faceless fury of nature.
The sky—a black maw pouring ice, storm, and wrath.
Pietro and Maria are no longer in their bodies.
But they know:
This is the domain of Hanaris.
The place of reckoning.
Then a voice speaks.
It is everywhere—
in their bones, in the wind, in their pulse.
"Alex and Yulia are not guilty."
The world stills.
"Yulia and Alex are not enemies.
They are instruments in another's hand.
Kairus is the violator. He twisted their minds.
These two... are puppets.
They didn't know. They couldn't understand.
You must not execute them."
Maria lifts her face to the heavens.
The storm lashes her skin, but she does not flinch.
"How?" she cries. "How do you punish a god?!"
Silence.
For a moment—pure, cutting silence.
Then the voice again—softer now.
Clearer.
"They will help you."
The Return
A violent jolt.
Air.
Metal.
The lamp's glare stabs their eyes.
They're back in the interrogation room.
But inside—there is only silence. And light.
The fury has gone. The fear has receded.
Only clarity remains.
Yulia and Alex—are not monsters.
They are a key.
Someone used them to open a door no one else could.
And now... they are not enemies.
But allies.
To save Mercury.
To stop a tyrant god.
And—for the first time in a long time—
To make a choice without blood on their hands.